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Excel, financial planning, freelance translator, Freelancer, Professional translator, self-employment, statistics, TO3000, Translation, translator, working practices
If the last statistics you ever came across involved the Poisson distribution at school, you may well be forgiven for running a mile from keeping any kind of statistics in your professional life. I studied A’level Maths with Statistics along with my languages (very little choice in the dark days if you didn’t want to go down the standard English or History route!) and while I wouldn’t say I actually enjoyed it, I suppose it did appeal to the logical side of my brain. In fact, mathematical ability is said to go hand-in-hand with language skills – but then, they say that about music too and I’m one of the world’s least musical people!
However, it makes sense to keep a weather eye on the facts and figures behind your business, enabling you to pick up on trends, change direction if necessary and weed out any poor performers. It’s also useful to have comprehensive records if you come to apply for tenders – and tenders seem to be becoming more common nowadays, not only for EU and government organisations , but also many large companies. The tender process can be a real bind, requiring vast amounts of information from individual translators – all made much easier if you have the relevant data to hand in the first place.
When I started out in translation over 30 years ago, we didn’t have the luxury of computerised systems (or computers for that matter!), so inevitably our in-house translation records took the form of simple hand-written ledgers showing the relevant information for each translation request, who it was assigned to, deadline, word count, etc. When I left to go freelance 5 years down the line, it seemed elementary to use a similar system for my own records – and indeed I still have the every same register to this day! My handwriting has got progressively untidier, the rates have increased considerably, and it’s patched together with parcel tape, but it still exists as a very precious and essential part of my workflow. I may have adapted the column headings slightly over the years, but this is basically how it looks:
At a glance, I can see what jobs I have in at any one time, how many words, what deadlines, how much I’ve invoiced and, perhaps most importantly of all, when I’ve been paid. It may be simple, but there’s no denying that it works extremely effectively – even in a power cut/computer crash! It would be a relatively simple matter to recreate this in an Excel spreadsheet and I may well do that in the future for back-up purposes – but I still like having a physical record too.
I also keep a fairly straightforward database of all the texts I’ve ever translated, now using Microsoft Access, although it started out as an extremely basic MS Works database. The original intention, having joined the computer age, was to allow me to relocate texts by date, title, subject or author in case I needed to reference them at a later date. CAT tools mean that this is rarely necessary these days (hurrah for concordance searches!), but I still keep the records just in case – and actually this was extremely useful when I needed to find out how many words I’d translated for certain clients/ subject areas for my ITI membership application and for tender submissions too. Also when a colleague was looking for the answer to a term query I’d posted on ProZ many years ago, pre-CAT tools – wonder of wonders, the system worked and I was able to find the document in question, albeit on an ancient CD-ROM!
I invested in TO3000 some years ago, but have found it fairly disappointing as far as invoicing and reports go, although it’s quite useful as a back-up project management tool and enables me to see at a glance what projects I’ve translated for specific clients. I just wish I could work out how to get it to produce detailed reports of word counts for specific clients over certain periods…
My invoices are based on yet another simple Excel-based system: I have templates for each client, in both Word and Excel, add the pricing details for each completed job to the ongoing Excel spreadsheet each month, then transfer the totals to the Word file at the end of each month – a matter of minutes! I know there are dedicated accounts and invoicing packages out there, but I’m loath to pay a monthly subscription when my own systems work pretty smoothly.
Accounts-wise, I’m afraid I’m still stuck in the dark ages with yet another ledger based on the Simplex system. When I first set up as a freelancer, I had a consultation with my local government small business advisor and this was the system they recommended, so it’s stuck! I always do my accounts at the end of each month, taking no more than a few minutes to enter my income and expenditure, which means that assembling the yearly accounts to go off to my accountant is a piece of cake. I keep a record of all my expenses in yet another register, which also contains all my receipts, so it’s easy to cross-reference the two (and should be self-explanatory if ever I’m subject to a tax inspection).
I also use Microsoft Money for my personal and business finances, entering all my expenditure as I go. This dates back to my divorce, when I needed to keep very detailed records of what I was spending, but it’s actually been a very useful habit to get into. I’m not sure whether this particular package is available any more, which is a shame, as it’s very comprehensive budgeting software, but there are plenty of other budgeting packages out there which probably do an equally good job. Unlike TO3000, it’s child’s play to produce reports on how much income you’ve received from each client, how much your telephone or gas bills are for the year, and so on.
Finally, I bank online and check my accounts most days so I can keep tabs on incoming payments. I then transfer the appropriate amount to a dedicated tax savings account (offset against my mortgage) as I go, thus avoiding any nasty shocks at the end of the year.
Armed with all this data, I find it fascinating to compile annual client statistics to compare how much work I’ve had from all my clients (in terms of both income and words translated), in which languages, how much work came from direct clients and how much from agencies and how much was from the UK and how much from abroad. This may encourage you to set targets for increasing the percentage of work with direct clients, say, or it may make you realise that you’re too dependent on one particular client or sector – or even language. Having done mine for a number of years now, they make interesting reading, mirroring the recession of 2007/2008 with a change in language volumes, and the current poor Euro/Sterling exchange rates reflected in a tendency to switch back to domestic clients. It might also draw attention to the fact that you’re devoting too much time to lower-paying clients at the expense of more lucrative higher-paying clients; not that rates are necessarily the be-all and end-all, but if you have a choice, it can be enlightening to see it recorded in black and white!
I’m aware that my ledger-based systems present a major flaw in that they aren’t backed up as computerised systems would be and I fully intend to create some sort of back-up system, especially for my accounts/expenses, on the computer when I’ve a free moment. At present, if the worst came to the worst and my house went up in flames, I’d only be able to access some of my data, which definitely isn’t ideal….
But how about you? I’d love to hear how others organise their workflows and records – who knows, perhaps I can streamline my processes even further?
ClaireCoxTranslations 
Sounds like you are very organised with the systems you have in place. It’s a great idea transferring amounts out regularly so you know you can cover your tax obligations 🙂 Enjoyed reading.
Brilliant! Thank you so much for this great post. Sorry to hear you are not loving TO3000–I actually do love it, and I am usually not that interested in actual per-word volume, but mainly hourly. It allows me to see how much I have invoiced to each client every year, and that helps me determine the size of the Christmas gift! I am currently looking for a good project management software to round out my record-keeping. And as an old-school MBA, I also love my Excel spreadsheets, which I use to log expenses. It seems lame, but I like it. Microsoft Money didn’t convince me that much, and neither did Quickbooks, so Excel it is. I can upload all the files to my CPA’s online portal and she grabs what she needs. This post is so awesome because it’s always great to read what colleagues are doing. Love to learn and grow, especially when it comes to being organized. Many thanks, Claire!
Thanks, Judy! It is fascinating to hear what works for others and of course what suits one person may not necessarily work for everyone. The Excel route certainly seems the simplest, but perhaps I should try again with TO3000 – I think I need a person-to-person course!
Thanks for starting this discussion on statistics, word counts and expenses, Claire.
In TO3000, I’ve never learnt how to get a word count out of the box by building a custom query, because “volume” in a job can be 1 word, 1 hour, 1 fixed price, etc.
However, I do keep track of my word count with TO3000, by adding a custom field. In advanced settings, go to Customs Fields and add a field to the jobs tab (field type: number). I also have a text field for subject area. Then I just export the data to Excel and build a pivot table, sorting by client/subject/date/wordcount.
TO3000 works brilliantly for invoicing, IMO, and it’s easy to export the data to Excel and send it to my accountant. But you’re right, Claire, setting up TO3000 is a little complex. In fact, I think there’s an opportunity here for someone to set up a training course.
I agree with Judy on the subject of expenses. I’ve tried YNAB, BudgetSimple and Buxfer, but they seem far too complex for my needs. In the end I’ve resorted to Excel and keep 2 spreadsheets, one for business expenses (which I send to my accountant) and the other for personal expenses, just out of interest.
Excel isn’t as pretty as other programs, but it does the job.
Thanks Emma – I’ll definitely give that a go. I agree about the need for a training course for TO3000. I’ve done a webinar in the past and asked a specific question about reports, but when it came to applying what I’d been told to my (probably antiquated) version, it just didn’t seem to work as described. There was supposed to be a talk about TO3000 at the ProZ conference in Rome a few years ago, but the developers had visa problems and couldn’t attend in the end, which was a shame. I first learned about TO3000 and Projetex in a presentation given by John di Rico at the ProZ conference in Aix even longer ago – I wonder if we could persuade John to do a workshop?! I’ve certainly never seen anything hands-on advertised anywhere….
Thanks for this, Claire! Really useful to read about your ledger for translation requests – I have something similar in Excel and I’ve recently decided to add in a column where I can note down the exact time a job has taken me, from start to finish. I haven’t had the extra column in there for very long but it’s already proven useful and has shed some light on a few productivity issues and shown me where I need to improve. It has also made me realise that some of the minimum charge jobs I take on aren’t even worth doing! Perhaps I need to rethink my minimum rate…
In terms of accounting software I’ve heard good things about FreeAgent, have you tried that? The only downside, which made me opt to continue doing my own accounts, was the invoicing function. It’s a similar issue to the volume one Emma mentioned re. TO3000 actually, but you can’t add in any custom fields which is a shame. I’d still consider investing in that kind of software in future but it would have to be customisable and I’d have to be able to use my own invoice templates (I know that with some of them you have to use their templates with their logo on etc.).
After your recommendation I’ve just downloaded Money Manager EX for my personal finances (Microsoft Money is no longer available, sadly, but lots of reviews say that Money Manager EX is similar). This year I need to be more organised so downloading the software is a start hehe! Thanks again for sharing:)
My pleasure, Claire – it’s great to compare notes about working practices. I’ve learned something too, thanks to Emma and Miranda via the Standing Out Group on Facebook. Based on Emma’s tips above and Miranda’s explanation that you can actually customise the fields shown on the client jobs page in TO3000 (by right-clicking in the empty space at the side of the page), I should be able to use it to extract the data I need (word counts) and export them to an Excel file to process further – brilliant! I can’t tell you how long I’ve been trying to work out how to do that! I hope you get on with Money Manager; another colleague, not on FB this time, had suggested this as a successor to Microsoft Money, so I hope it’s as intuitive to use and as useful. I’ve considered accounts software, but really don’t want to pay a monthly subscription for something I can do relatively easily myself. I’m not sure what value they add by having it as a monthly fee, to be honest. I’d much rather pay for software upfront and then upgrade if necessary. Great idea to keep a note of time taken on jobs (if you can be strict about not getting distracted by e-mails or social media while you work!). When I’ve worked on an hourly basis on editing jobs in the past, I’ve always found it much less lucrative than translating based on a word rate – which probably suggests my hourly rate is too low, but I think I’d struggle to increase it given that clients already regard it as quite steep! I think tying your minimum fee in with your hourly rate is a good idea – but hard to impose subsequently if you’ve been applying a lower minimum. Good luck!
I think Claire’s comment about keeping track of time spent on each job is really relevant here. It’s a common misconception that we as translators are selling our expertise, but we are in fact selling our time. I find it’s really fun to use some free online tools to make bar graphs each quarter comparing my top clients by real rate per hour. This can help manage time in those ultra busy times or when deciding when and where it may be appropriate to adjust rates.
Excellent article!
Thank you! I haven’t ventured into bar chart territory yet, although I’m sure that would be equally fascinating! I think we all have an instinctive feel for those clients who we work most productively for, but it can be very interesting to see it set out in black and white.
Hi Claire, it’s always interesting to hear how other people do things.
I use an Excel workbook with separate sheets for projects, invoices, clients and time spent. Where possible, I “automate” and make things visible at a glance, with numerous macros, formulae (eg to show how much money in my current account is mine and how much is VAT) and ample use of conditional formatting (e.g. to highlight which invoices are overdue).
I prefer relatively “low-tech” software, as I want to have access to my data in a pretty basic format rather than in some proprietary format that might be hard to work with if the software tool supplier ever went bust or if I wanted to migrate to another tool in the future. And from my experience at a software firm in my previous career, data migrations can be a real pain.
My column headings are similar to yours, although I only enter the payment-received date once, against the invoice not the job, as my invoices usually include more than one job. I’ve rejigged the order of the columns in my project-management workbook to match my invoice template, so that I can just create my invoices by copying and pasting a column range.
And all the data is useful – eg for Chartered Linguist applications – and it’s sometimes a rude awakening to see that a healthy per-word rate does not necessarily equate to a healthy per-hour rate, which is really all that counts.
All the best
Oliver
Thanks Oliver – your “low-tech” Excel files sound remarkably complex to me: the very mention of macros has me running for the hills! But I do agree about Excel working well; last time I changed my computer it was a real pain to transfer my MS Money files and also TO3000/Solid pdf conversion as the programs no longer supported the new Windows format. I managed to resolve MS Money myself, but had to ask for the developers’ help with TO3000 (they were very helpful and there was no charge, but the very fact that you have to ask is a pain!). I had to buy the latest version of Solid in the end as that didn’t work at all 😦
And yes, the word rate doesn’t necessarily reflect the effort that’s gone into a job. I recently did a 77,000-word job, of which 75% were repetitions, so any review of the word totals for that client will inevitably be skewed – but I still find it interesting to keep a record! Claire’s point about keeping a note of the hours spent on a project to compare with the word count is an interesting suggestion, but I’m not convinced I’m quite organised enough to keep a strict record of the time spent on any one job, especially when you factor in dealing with new enquiries, answering e-mails, admin, getting distracted by social media/research. I can do it if I have to (if I’m editing on an hourly basis, say), but I’d find it quite restrictive to have to do it all the time! Then again, maybe I should to really streamline my working practices…..
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Great post, thanks Claire.
I’m a big fan of MS Excel too… and someone created various macros for me allowing me to do the whole management using Excel sheets. That’s my preferred way of working, it’s so simple AND flexible ;-).
Thanks, Nancy – that’s certainly the conclusion I’ve come to. Although the tweaks to TO3000 suggested above will certainly make my statistical tasks that bit simpler too. The secret is definitely in the organisation!
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